Customer Reviews

Nightmare in Wichita: The Hunt For The BTK Strangler

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(10)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(9)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

This is a very poorly written book. I was interested in the subject but had to fight my way through unanswered questions, terrible sentence structure and just plain wasted words. Mr. Beattie knows the subject but has an awful time getting it out. Not worth the money.

When I picked up this book I hoped that I would learn some background information about the BTK murders. I am not a native of Wichita so I knew about the murders, but not a lot. I guess in some respects I was not disappointed. I learned many facts and did gain some insight into the feelings of the city during this dark time in Wichita history. However, this could not outweigh the problems I had with the book.

I found the writing to be amateurish and the editing sloppy. I attribute some of this to the rush that the publishing company put on the release of the book following the arrest of a suspect. Little things, such as identifying BTK package drops along I35 instead of the correct location, I135 were disappointing.

The worst part was Mr. Beattie's need to congratulate himself throughout the last part of the book. It is a never ending commentary of on the number of people that told him he was responsible for bringing the killer out of hiding. We also don't care or need to hear about the number of interviews he did and who interviewed him, though Mr. Beattie again seems to take pleasure in revealing this to us. The self congratulatory back patting that he engages in distracts the reader from the true story in the book. Mr. Beattie should have remembered that he was writing about BTK history and not himself, despite the fact that he is now, in his words, "part of the BTK mystique."

My suggestion, check this book out from the library and quit reading when he begins to discuss his grand role in the BTK investigation. Unfortunately it seems Mr. Beattie got off track at that point and the real story was lost. This ruined the entire book for me and I have yet to talk to another person who has read the book that does not say the same.

As you may have surmised, this book is on the subject of the BTK killer, responsible for ten murders in the Wichita, Kansas, area. Sadly, it seems that the appeal of this book is largely restricted to the south central Kansas area, which is unfortunate because BTK foiled everyone for thirty years, including Wichita police and the FBI. BTK is known to many investigators and profilers due to his uniqueness in the panoply of serial killers. BTK even entered the pop culture as being a model for Francis Dolarhyde, the serial killer in the book and 2002 movie _Red_Dragon_, part of the Thomas Harris "Hannibal Lecter" series. If BTK operated in a larger media market it is certain that he would be more well known as an individual, rather than some obscure reference (as an aside - national media, Wichita is not some "small town" in Kansas; Wichita is considered a mid-sized town with a population of 350,000. Yes, it is possible to live in a city that is called something besides New York and Los Angeles. There is intelligent life in the Midwest. We have running water and electricity. All of the people I know from growing up in the Wichita area came from a diverse gene pool, have all their teeth and married outside of the fourth degree of consanguinity. It's not like living on the coasts, but most Wichitans thank their deity of choice for that fact. But I digress.).

The book starts out very well. Beattie chronicles the murders starting with the Oteros in 1974. The Otero murders and the fact that an apparent serial killer operated in the area shocked many Wichitans. Wichitans now had a reason to lock doors, fear strangers, own firearms for personal safety and so on. People began checking their phones for a dial tone (a BTK hallmark was cutting phone lines prior to an attack) and check closets (a BTK hiding place). The trend in home building even changed, as people began demanding master bedrooms on the second floor, as BTK often came in through a window. Beattie has plenty of quotes and observations from those involved in the investigation as well as friends and family of the victims. I have no complaints regarding this first two-thirds of the book (other than some minor editing issues), and I actually applaud Beattie on his research and his work on the BTK era between 1974 to 1986. Had Mr. Beattie stopped there, I would have easily given it four to five stars.

The final third of the book begins in January 1999. This is where the book begins its decline. Credit where credit is due, the reason BTK probably started communicating with police and the press is due to Beattie's remarks in the Wichita Eagle newspaper and the writing of this very book. Beattie is part of the story. But the story is not Beattie, a fact that he seems not to understand. The final third of the book reads like a journal of Beattie's life between January '99 and March 2004. Which would be fascinating were I seeking to read a book on the life and times of Robert Beattie, Esq. But I want to read a book about BTK. Beattie uses the first person pronoun copiously in this final third of the book, probably three times more than he references BTK or the BTK suspect, Dennis Rader. Beattie goes into stories about how many times he was interviewed in a day by the major networks, how overseas media were calling him, how his answering machine is overloaded by media requests, on and on ad nauseum. He talks about how "strange men" come to the door. What's so strange about them? They knock on the door and leave when he doesn't answer. O-kay? Bob, this is called "fifteen minutes of fame." You have to expect this, even if you don't like it. But regardless, what does any of this have to do with BTK???

And then, finally, thankfully, we have a word (almost literally) about Rader. The first 192 pages and whatever is left in the final third of the book when Beattie isn't talking about himself and the fact that he's a member of Mensa are all about the crimes of and the hunt for BTK. Finally, when the police are able to pinpoint a man who fits the BTK mold so well Beattie devotes a whole five pages to him. Five pages, most of which consist of biographical data anyone could find out with a public records search. I don't know exactly when Beattie's deadline for this book was, but I ran a search of Google News within a day of Rader's arrest and found far more about the suspect than made it into this book. There's more in this book about Beattie's Mensa meetings (Beattie's a member of Mensa, by the way) then there is about Dennis Rader. In what space Beattie spares to talk about Rader, he emphasizes the fact that Rader is a "registered Republican." Imagine that, a man trying to mix into a solid red state registering as a Republican, as if that even matters. Okay Bob, you're a lawyer and a university professor - you've got your liberal stripes. Give us something relevant, like facts about his years as a compliance officer and harassment complaints lodged against him, both of which were surely ready by press time. Oh yeah, Beattie's a member of Mensa - did I mention that?

This book is worthwhile as a source for historical information regarding BTK's crimes and is a good bibliography for other books regarding serial killers in general (he mentions several other books regarding the history and psychology of modern American serial killers). However, as the book moves into the present, Beattie loses focus on what the book is about and ends up focusing on himself. If there is a second edition I hope Beattie employs an editor and that editor is ruthless on the final third of the book, adding much more about Rader in the place where Beattie talks about himself. I have no problem with Bob Beattie the man; he seems like a hail fellow well met, a nice guy who would be an interesting man with whom to converse over a couple of beers. Perhaps he'll publish his memoirs some day, and I would probably find it to be a good read. However, this book is not the place for his personal reflections on his brief fame. This book is a mediocre start; I hope, though, that someone picks it up after the Rader trial and writes a complete volume of the BTK case. And I hope the author leaves his ego out of it.

Wait for this one to hit your local library; don't waste money on it.

I grew up in the area, terrified of the serial killer BTK. His re-appearance after many years of silence (he was presumed dead by many) shocked this community to the core. Having lived with this story for almost as long as I can remember, this book was a must-read for me. It is a very detailed and well-RESEARCHED book about the 30 year saga. However, it is not an especially well-WRITTEN book. If I hadn't been personally interested in the case, I think I might have lost interest due to some very hard-to-follow passages and poor editing.

As someone who moved to Wichita shortly after the Vian murder and still a citizen, I was anxious to read the book. I enjoyed the first 2/3 of the book. I did not like the constant "patting himself on the back" that comprised the last 1/3 of the book. It is an interesting read and I will probably read the first 2/3 of the book again.

Actually for having to deliver a finished product under a frentic deadline for publication due to the recent apprehension of BTK the author has done a commendable job. As a federal law enforcement officer working periodically in the Wichita area during the 1970s' I can attest to Beattie's ability to give you a real feel for the city and it's fear during the Disco Decade.The closest book I have found to date that mirrors the defendant and his crmes would be "ZODIAC" by Robert Graysmith and the number of common elements between the different psychopaths is frighteningly similar. True if you want a definitive look at the BTK killings you will have to wait until a later book comes out.However with his grasp of the people
and the town I only hope that if a future work does comes out Mr. Beattie is the author who does it.

I read a lot of True Crime - see my True Crime 101 List - and I saw this one on a recent go through a Bricks and Mortar bookstore. I got it. I tried to read it. I quit. This book is another reminder that one should always check the reviews here 1st.

The Introduction says "The book you are reading started as a chapter for a classroom exercise. When I wanted my students to learn about this (BTK) aspect of Wichita (Kansas) history I looked for a book about the BTK." Finding none, the author wrote this book. The author doesn't say who he is in the scheme of things. The class project book was written before the recent discovery of BTK's identity, and that portion is just cobbled on at the end - with no chronological editting/interweaving along the way.

The good part of this book? It gives the reader a reinforced appreciation of Ann Rule and her editors./TundraVision, Amazon Reviewer

Well this book may have flushed out the BTK killer for which it deserves kudos. It does not however mean we now should feel obliged to read it. Alas the book is sloppy, repetitive (most anecdotes get repeated at least twice, ones about checking cut phone cords up to a half dozen times) and far too much petty detail about the author's life. Also now that we know who the killer is that leaves a thousand questions about the material unanswered. Hopefully a professional writer will go over this material and knock it into readable shape.

The author of this book, Bob Beattie, is a Wichita attorney and he goes about telling this tale in a lawyerly fashion: after years of research he gives us the facts (leavened with some speculation) in a clear, workmanlike prose.

This book feels a bit padded and it's a little repetitive (for example, we are told why victim Nancy Fox didn't look like herself in her coffin on page 80 and then told again on page 212).

Potential readers should be warned that Mr. Beattie is a proud member of Mensa and, thus, they should expect to encounter the occasional fifty cent word, such as "contumaciously" (page 196).

Recommended.

I'm a little puzzled as to the complaints about this book. The details & timing of the killings including failures are in it.

The complaints of glory hunting by the author seem to ignore or deny the fact that this book was written to bring BTK out of hiding after the author learned that serial killers who keep trophys & taunt the police are unwilling to SHARE the fame & limelight.(According to the FBI Behavioral Sciences section).

The author touts the criminal investigators loudly in the book & made it public knowledge that his book would show the law enforcement community was the one worth writing about.

Lets re-cap, criminal hiding/ book started to lime-light cops/ author makes books existence public knowledge/ interviews conducted with good guys/ criminal starts publishing again (as in they can't hi-jack my story)/ baddie makes mistakes, gets captured & convicted. Goallllllll!

It wasn't written with your entertainment in mind though I was fascinated by a crime story done this way & for this purpose. It was written to make BTK jealous & that worked. Author 1 Whiners 0

The bragging was earned in spades. It was part of the plan & if you don't like it well SO? This man performed a public service beyond your comprehension. He knew that after the fact others would write in a more sensationalized detail about BTK & make money. He brought justice to the survivors, maybe life for future victims & peace to a large city. Ambulance chasers live in all professions. Just like gore hounds chase after gore.